The gaming industry depends upon player participation. Players are generally “hopeful” players who either think they are lucky or at least think they can get lucky—for a relatively small investment to play a game, they can get a disproportionately large return. To create this feeling of luck, a gaming apparatus relies upon an internal or external random element generator to generate one or more random elements such as random numbers. The gaming apparatus determines a game outcome based, at least in part, on the one or more random elements.
A significant technical challenge is to improve the operation of gaming apparatus and games played thereon, including the manner in which they leverage the underlying random element generator, by making them yield a negative return on investment in the long run (via a high quantity and/or frequency of player/apparatus interactions) and yet random and volatile enough to make players feel they can get lucky and win in the short run. Striking the right balance between yield versus randomness and volatility to create a feeling of luck involves addressing many technical problems, some of which can be at odds with one another. This luck factor is what appeals to core players and encourages prolonged and frequent player participation. As the industry matures, the creativity and ingenuity required to improve such operation of gaming apparatus and games grows accordingly.
The implementation of skill-based features adds another level of complexity and flexibility to gaming. As a result of the skill-based game, more skilled performances may relate to higher payouts. For example, skill-based features provided in wagering games may be used to directly alter the payback percentage of the wagering game (a.k.a. return-to-player (RTP), theoretical expected value (EV), etc.). Thus, a skilled player performance during the skill-based feature may result in a modified payback of the wagering game, altered in favor of the player. Payback of the wagering game may be likewise modified by awarding a fixed credit prize at the end of the skill-based feature commensurate with the skill or performance of the player. Alternatively, a payback of the wagering game may be modified by increasing either the number of spins or the win multiplier within a free game feature. Thus, skill-based gaming benefits players by offering higher rewards for higher skilled performance and benefits operators by increasing revenue while players attempt to increase skill while enjoying more diverse and exciting wagering game features.